As APC hits the road on restructuring September 25, 2017 Taiwo Adisa

The strategic committee set up by the All Progressives Congress (APC) on the restructuring agenda hit the roads with its zonal public hearings. Ahead the zonal conferences, Secretary of the Committee, Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi addressed the media in Abuja on the key issues the committee is taking to the zones for deliberation. Group Politics Editor, Taiwo Adisa, examines the issues in the milieu of the relentless campaigns for restructuring of the polity.

The restructuring agenda, like its predecessors in public discourse including the National Question: Sovereign National Conference, National Conference, Resource Control and Devolution of Powers, has continued to defy the hangman. Notwithstanding the spirited attempts by antagonists and commentators to play down its importance by calling for restructuring of the mind rather than the polity, the idea of political restructuring of the Nigerian federation has refused to die.

And so, different commentators and stakeholders, including those who were initially sceptical about its goal, have jumped on the train in recent times. The All Progressives Congress (APC) which has devolution of powers, a variant of the restructuring agenda on its manifesto prior to the 2015 election, had continued to insist it had not changed its belief in the idea, but not a few of its loyalists got frustrated along the line as they waited almost endlessly on the party to bring that belief to limelight.

Many of the disillusioned folks, however, got some renewal as the party announced the composition of a restructuring committee some months back. The Committee, headed by the Kaduna State governor, Nasiru el-Rufai, with Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi as secretary also has other members including the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, governors of Kano, Osun, Ondo and Plateau states, Abubakar Ganduje, Rauf Aregbesola and Rotimi Akeredolu, respectively, as well as other prominent members of the party, set out on a two- week tour of the six geopolitical zones of the country.

Senator Adetunmbi, who addressed the media in Abuja on September 14, said that the public hearings would be held for cluster of states in different locations including Benin City, Uyo, Owerri, Abuja, Kano, Sokoto, Bauchi, Enugu, Akure and Jos between September 18 and October 9.

He said that the national chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun had, on the inauguration of the committee, mandated it to eke out clear definitions of different terms including true federalism; restructuring; devolution of powers; regionalism; resource control, among others, while aligning such definitions to the party’s manifesto and campaign promises.

He said that the committee had held series of meetings during which it went through different conference reports on the national question thus far after which it distilled 12 related issues. He said that the committee has also set up some social media platforms in order to source views from a variety of voices.

According to Adetunmbi, the twelve issues already recognised by the committee following the consideration of the report of 2005 National Political Reforms Conference and the 2014 National Conference include:
1. Creation/Merger of States: Should Nigeria create more states or not; should states be merged, if so, what should be the framework and guidelines?

2. Derivation Principle: What percentage of federal collectable resources should be given back to their sources, e.g. crude oil, solid minerals, VAT?

iii. Devolution of Powers: What items on the exclusive legislative list should be transferred to the recurrent list to enable states have direct responsibility e.g. state & community police, prisons, etc?

1. Federating Units: Should the Nigerian federation be based on regions or zones as units or maintain the current 36 state structure?

2. Fiscal Federalism & Revenue Allocation: What are the proposed changes in the current revenue allocation formula? What should be the new sharing formula between the federal, state and local governments that will reflect their share of constitutional responsibilities?

3. Form of Government: Should Nigeria continue with the current Presidential system of government or return to the parliamentary system as practiced in the first republic or develop a hybrid of the two systems? vii. Independent Candidacy: Should there be a constitutional provision for eligible citizens to contest elections without being members of registered political parties?

viii. Land Tenure System: Should the Land Use Act be part of the constitution or not and what should be the right of states in the ownership and control of mineral and natural resources on and under the ground?

1. Local Government Autonomy: Should LGAs be independent of states and have direct revenue sourcing from the FG as the third-tier of the federation or should they be administrative units of states?

2. Power Sharing & Rotation: Should Nigeria have a policy of rotation of the key elected political positions on regional or zonal basis for national offices and by senatorial districts for state offices?

3. Resource Control: Should states, regions or zones be allowed to exclusively or partially own, exploit and tap the financial benefits of natural resources in their domain and just pay taxes to the Federal Government? xii. Type of Legislature: Does Nigeria need a bi- cameral or uni-cameral, part-time or full-time parliament?

He also stated that the committee has been further divided into clusters that make up four teams distributed along geographical regions. The entire Committee is scheduled to converge on Abuja on October 9 for a wrap up of all submissions When asked whether the audience at the public hearings would be limited to members of APC, Adetunmbi said that the fin the task of nation building, every stakeholder has a role to play to make his own contributions.

He said that in this case, the APC as a national political party is an institution that has a role to play in making its own contributions to nation building.

He defined the exercise thus: “This exercise is its (APC’s) own way of making that contributions. And it felt that it is necessary, not just to think amongst ourselves, but to actually ask members of the pubic what do you actually think and that is why everything that this committee is doing is not about its own opinion. It’s about harvesting the opinion of the ordinary people that we want to talk to in order to form an opinion. After all, no political party exists just by itself.

“We have put up a public announcement calling for memorandum and members of the public to meet us at designated venue without any discrimination. So, it’s an open invitation to all Nigerians to attend and make their views and their voices to count. When asked whether the organs of the APC were not working at cross purposes on the restructuring agenda considering the fact that Northern states governors have also flagged off a similar debate, Adetunmbi said that the whole essence was to secure as many views from the people as possible.

“The Northern Governors Forum as stakeholders in the development of Nigeria, they have every right to consult people on the future of Nigeria. I don’t think it’s a matter of monopoly and I think that is the attitude of the APC. Every opinion is welcome. The Committee will do its work. The challenge now is for all of us to be positive because what we are looking for is solution. Again, Adetunmbi responded to questions as to the clash of his committee’s work with the ongoing constitution amendment process of the National Assembly.

He told newsmen that the committee, as a baby of the APC would avail the party the opportunity to engage its members in the legislature with the clear views of Nigerians on the vexed issues. He said: “There is no monopoly of ideas and the party felt that in view of ongoing discussions in the country about state of federalism, it’s good for the party to understand exactly what its role is and its definition of the issues are, in doing so, the party felt in its wisdom that public consultation is necessary and that is what we are doing and it does not foreclose any other body within the country to do its own work. That’s why somebody referred to the South West. They’ve just consulted and put something into the public domain. That’s a body of information, it’s a body of knowledge from which ideas can be gathered in the best interest of the country.

“The issue of conflict with National Assembly does not arise because this exercise is not trying to make laws. It is trying to understand the popular demand of the people which the party can use to advocate within its membership in the National Assembly for necessary constitutional amendment ideas. “And don’t forget that constitutional amendment is not a one in a life time opportunity. It’s once in every four years. So, the fact that the National Assembly is going through a process does not foreclose public discussion and debate on what should happen and there is always a timetable and opportunity in the future to take such ideas and turn them into necessary laws.

Is the committee and the APC trying to circumvent the call for referendum to resolve the National Question by groups like the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB)? The Senator insisted that was not the situation but added that nothing is foreclosed. He told newsmen: “If this comes out as part of the responses of public consultations, it will surely be reported. You know I said at the beginning that this is a subject in which the Committee of itself has no opinion. We are not canvassing any opinion as a committee. As a committee, we are interested in harvesting opinion, in order to inform the party on what the public is saying concerning these issues such that the party can do its own work effective in such a manner that itresponds to the popular opinion of people.

The APC as a party did not partake in the 2014 National Conference and some government officials have rejected the confab report, will the restructuring committee ply that same route was another question thrown at the Senator. He declared that the committee and the APC did not reject the 2014 National Conference report. Hear him: “I don’t think there is anything called rejection of that conference. The report of the conference is in the public domain and it is available as literature for the work we are doing. Not just that. You have the 2005 political reforms report. So, we are looking at all of this in order for the APC to understand what exactly its role should be in the way forward.”

Is the APC being pressured to jump on the restructuring agenda, having kept silent all the while even though it has devolution of powers on its manifesto? The Senator did not mince words in tackling the question. “In terms of the debate about when the party manifesto was being worked out, I think everything was debated. But we must be honest to acknowledge that at the time in 2015 when the manifesto is being worked out, the content of the debate is not as it is today. In 2015, nobody was drawing maps. Today, maps are being drawn. And in 2015, there was some level of nationality. So, you can assume some broad recommendation and was what went into the manifesto of the APC and that is the point I made that it’s a dynamic issue. Because we acknowledge that there are new elements to the debate, new anger has set in, we are opening the frontiers of the debate and inviting even people with anger to come and express their anger and we hope to make things out of it in such a way that everybody will locate his or her bearing. Some reporters were curious to know whether the committee’s activities are headed for the rocks going by the declaration by President Muhammadu Buhari in his last national broadcast where he referred agitators for restructuring to the National Assembly and the National Council of States and Adetunmbi further reassured.

The Senator said:”On the issue of statement of Buhari foreclosing the debate, I don’t think that is the case. If he says the National Assembly has powers to take decision, I think he even opens the frontiers. We have representatives in the National Assembly. If today there is a position in the party, the party can call its members in the National Assembly and direct them to act accordingly. A constituent can also direct their representatives. So, there is nothing foreclosed. I will take the statement of President Buhari to mean an acknowledgement that the issue is open for debate.

As interphase between various segments of the society, we cannot under any circumstance foreclose dialogue, public consultation to understand issues as a basis of interventions and that’s exactly what the party is doing. Whether it ought to have done it earlier than now or not is open for debate. But the principle of asking the public what do you think, what’s your view, what’s your opinion, can we hear you out? It is not something that we should shut down in any democracy. And coming from a political party, it is something that we should encourage and promote and advocate and when results of such consultations become open, it’s something that the media should feast on and say this has come as a product of public consultation. That is exactly what this exercise is all about.” And the fireworks were not in any way delayed. As soon as the zonal hearings kicked off, Nigerians immediately bombarded the committee with opinions on all the 12-point agenda and even more. At the first of the zonal hearing in Benin-City, Edo state, stakeholders canvassed fiscal federalism and part-time legislature.

Ogun state Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, who addressed the gathering said that the exercise was all about making Nigeria a better place for all. According to him, the essence of the meeting was to bring government closer to the people and secure the views of the people on the ongoing call for restructuring of the country. “It is about Nigeria and it is not good that will should be discussing among ourselves and that is why we decided to bring this meeting closer to the people,” he said.
www.tribuneonlineng.com/apc-hits-road-restructuring/

Hypocrites

let's restructure ourselves first

APC is just wasting our time.
This is a jamboree!

luvinhubby:
Hypocrites

yeah,that is the word.

Bunch of clowns test-running another scam by APC. to deceive gullible nigerians for 2019.

All rhetorics and no action.
Restructuring is the buzzword for every politician now to sell himself to the electorate and get their votes after which they trow it into the trash bin.

Meanwhile, how come there is no body from the South East or South South occupying an important position in that lopsided committee formed by the ruling party.This is still part of the injustice which we cry day and night perpetrated by other regions against us.

This country will witness another massive implosion sooner or later such that will shake and affect the whole world because the ruling class from particular region deliberately and systematically destroy our collective future due to selfish interest.

I weep for this Country!

I still don't understand what common man would gain from the restructuring thing.

I see it mostly as noise making or at best attempt by some "leaders" to corner more money to be embezzled.

Looking for all possible ways to remain in power beyond 2019

They shld not disturb themselves Turaki Adamawa will restructure the country to our satisfaction

#Atikulate2019

Restructure this poo.